The CHANGE (Canadian Health Advanced by Nutrition and Graded Exercise) Program embeds exercise testing, prescription and programming directly within primary care practice and within patient electronic medical records. In British Columbia, Kinesiologists are becoming recognized as integral members of team-based health care teams and are being hired into primary care networks, supported by the Ministry of Health. This shift towards disease prevention and health promotion in primary care has profound, positive effects on patient health, improves the effectiveness of medical practice and provides new professional pathway opportunities for trainees. In this session, participants will hear about the implementation of CHANGE in BC, the health benefits to patients and the valuable collaborative opportunities between primary care networks and academic institutions.
Robert Boushel is a professor and Director of the School of Kinesiology at UBC in Vancouver which is situated on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nation. His research and teaching covers broad areas of exercise physiology including regulation of the oxygen cascade, the circulation and muscle bioenergetics during exercise. This focus is applied to study the acute response to dynamic exercise and the adaptive responses to various forms of training in healthy and clinical populations and environments. Dr. Boushel also focuses on exercise in primary care medicine in collaboration with CHANGE BC in the Pacific Northwest Division of Family Practice https://divisionsbc.ca/pacific-northwest and the Division of Sport and Exercise Medicine at UBC. He leads the Saltin International Graduate Course in Exercise and Clinical Physiology, is a member of UBC Health Council health.ubc.ca/, UBC Precision Health, and the BC Diabetes Research Network.